I met this morning (Mar 22) morning's minion (WBZ TV news) and saw a clip of Massachusetts' Sen. Scott Brown speaking to a group of fishermen. He was addressing proposed new lower limits on fishing in the Atlantic due to depleted stocks of haddock and cod, primarily, but of virtually all groundfish. Brown excoriated "Washington insider" scientists for these limits (a new and creative use of that worn-out right-wing phrase), and questioned the science behind their conclusions, another worn-out right-wing strategy.
Also on this morning's news was a clip of Pres. Obama speaking to a group in Oklahoma(?) or some other oilstate, saying that we're drilling way more than we used to already but we should keep drilling more and probably re-think the Keystone Pipeline and find a way to get it going, regardless of science, fact, or addiction.
And those in attendance at both appearances nodded and applauded, as both speakers knew they would.
Anyone with even a glimmer of awareness knows that the US is refining more oil than we have in decades, that, for the first time in decades we are actually net exporters (and why is that so? Might it be cheaper for us if we just kept it all here?), that a new well going on-line today won't affect price for several years, that oil is a finite resource, and that the main factors in the gasoline price-spike are skittishness on the part of investors and speculators about events in Iran and the rest of the Middle East, and that market speculation in petroleum futures itself; investors bet on whether oil prices will rise or fall, and that speculation makes oil prices rise or fall. That is unfettered, unregulated Kapitalism at work. Politicians have made promises and attempts to curb such speculation but all such attempts have, shockingly, been thwarted (I think that's the first time I've ever used that word in a piece of writing. It felt good.).
People with even a passing knowledge of population increases and resource management also know that there are simply far too many people on this fragile planet (But we can't discuss birth control!), and that natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate, relative to that overwhelming population. Oil, gas, water, trees, minerals, all manner of flora and fauna are in serious danger of depletion, extirpation or extinction, and the consequences for those at the top of the food chain are unknown.
And today, as I write this, in Acworth, NH, elevation 1800 ft., on the second day of spring, about two months earlier than "normal," my lilacs have budding leaves. This evening I went for a walk with my dog; I was barefoot. So was she, but that's not all that unusual.
The Koch brothers--scary extreme right wing billionaire oil types, lurking and looming in the background of the Tea Party and various nefarious right-wing causes (and effects, come to think of it), and yet also patrons of the Arts--(go figure) commissioned a study to debunk global-warming science. Their head research scientist, physicist Richard Muller, a heretofore staunch global-warming skeptic, well-paid to say there's no such thing as global warming, came back with "Uh, no, it's, uh, it's definitely really happening, and we should reduce greenhouse gases" (I made that quote up, but I'll bet it's not that far off.). Don't hear much about that study, do you? And by the way, other recent studies have shown that people who get their info exclusively from Fox actually know less about what's really, truly factually happening in the world than people who get no news at all. They've apparently not-spun their way into negative capability. And I didn't make that up.
My question this week, and every week for the rest of my life, probably, is "Where are the Grown-Ups?" Where are the people in power who are willing to tell the truth, and tell it again, and again, even if it's ugly and scary and the great unwashed might not want to hear it? And where is the majority of said unwashed who are willing to hear dire info and accept it and act accordingly, to pull their heads out of the oil-sands and try to cope or even to begin an attempt to change the future we're on the brink of?
In Mark Hertsgaard's Hot: Living Through The Next Fifty Years On Earth, he uses an image that I find strikingly vivid and apt. He asks readers to imagine themselves on a train headed downhill; ahead looms a large fog bank. When the engineer sees that fog, he hits the brakes. The laws of physics and inertia take hold; although he's trying to stop, he hasn't enough time. He's going to go some unknown distance into that fog. We're into that fog bank now, into that unknown. The things that'll keep us from going way far in are recognition of the fog's existence, and the foot on the brakes. And we're deep into denial that the fog bank is there, and we haven't even started stopping yet. ...And the band played on....
Yes, I'm mad as hell. Peter Finch's character in Network made that phrase and feeling work to public advantage: people threw open their windows and yelled it out into the night and began to change their behaviors. But that was a work of fiction. In this mess we call real life, not so much. I'm mad that the right-wing talking assholes (that's where their heads are) obfuscate, mislead, outright lie about the straits we're in, all the while consolidating their power and fattening their bank accounts while the so-called Left (there is no actual Left anymore: Nixon would be too liberal to be elected today. Think about that....) hems and haws and stammers weakly and ineffectually and wets its finger to see which way the wind is blowing--it can't even consider what's actually in that wind--and pontificates accordingly. It is said that a people get the government they deserve; I think the same can be said of a future.
My country--hell, my planet (well, it's not actually my planet, but you get what I mean) has been hijacked by sick, twisted, delusional, selfish ideologues who care only about the next news cycle, never mind the next election, and their bank accounts' bottom lines, never mind their kids' and grandkids' futures. Win the debate at the expense of truth. It feels totally like the toddler response to Hide and Seek: "If I have my eyes closed, you can't see me." "If I deny this stuff viciously and vociferously enough, and amass enough gold, I'll be immune." And while there's a soupcon of truth there, since it's the poor who'll get it first and worst (as it always is) it's gonna get us all, no matter who, what, or where, no matter believer or denier. As Greg Brown said, "Life's not what you think it is, it's just what it is."
So what to make of this, radiologically? Should I play songs of doom and gloom, apocalypse and cynicism? Nah, I've done all of that stuff. On the Titanic, the band kept on a-playin', and if it worked for them--what's that? Oh, it, it didn't, really? Oh, well, that may change...Nope-- What the hell-- the ship sank, this train ain't stopping, so: "Let's Dance." And maybe, if we wait long enough and clap really hard, the Real Grownups will show up and save the day....
Hope to see you Tuesday, noon till two Eastern on 100.1 FM, or wool.fm.
"Dance me to the end of love."
Also on this morning's news was a clip of Pres. Obama speaking to a group in Oklahoma(?) or some other oilstate, saying that we're drilling way more than we used to already but we should keep drilling more and probably re-think the Keystone Pipeline and find a way to get it going, regardless of science, fact, or addiction.
And those in attendance at both appearances nodded and applauded, as both speakers knew they would.
Anyone with even a glimmer of awareness knows that the US is refining more oil than we have in decades, that, for the first time in decades we are actually net exporters (and why is that so? Might it be cheaper for us if we just kept it all here?), that a new well going on-line today won't affect price for several years, that oil is a finite resource, and that the main factors in the gasoline price-spike are skittishness on the part of investors and speculators about events in Iran and the rest of the Middle East, and that market speculation in petroleum futures itself; investors bet on whether oil prices will rise or fall, and that speculation makes oil prices rise or fall. That is unfettered, unregulated Kapitalism at work. Politicians have made promises and attempts to curb such speculation but all such attempts have, shockingly, been thwarted (I think that's the first time I've ever used that word in a piece of writing. It felt good.).
People with even a passing knowledge of population increases and resource management also know that there are simply far too many people on this fragile planet (But we can't discuss birth control!), and that natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate, relative to that overwhelming population. Oil, gas, water, trees, minerals, all manner of flora and fauna are in serious danger of depletion, extirpation or extinction, and the consequences for those at the top of the food chain are unknown.
And today, as I write this, in Acworth, NH, elevation 1800 ft., on the second day of spring, about two months earlier than "normal," my lilacs have budding leaves. This evening I went for a walk with my dog; I was barefoot. So was she, but that's not all that unusual.
The Koch brothers--scary extreme right wing billionaire oil types, lurking and looming in the background of the Tea Party and various nefarious right-wing causes (and effects, come to think of it), and yet also patrons of the Arts--(go figure) commissioned a study to debunk global-warming science. Their head research scientist, physicist Richard Muller, a heretofore staunch global-warming skeptic, well-paid to say there's no such thing as global warming, came back with "Uh, no, it's, uh, it's definitely really happening, and we should reduce greenhouse gases" (I made that quote up, but I'll bet it's not that far off.). Don't hear much about that study, do you? And by the way, other recent studies have shown that people who get their info exclusively from Fox actually know less about what's really, truly factually happening in the world than people who get no news at all. They've apparently not-spun their way into negative capability. And I didn't make that up.
My question this week, and every week for the rest of my life, probably, is "Where are the Grown-Ups?" Where are the people in power who are willing to tell the truth, and tell it again, and again, even if it's ugly and scary and the great unwashed might not want to hear it? And where is the majority of said unwashed who are willing to hear dire info and accept it and act accordingly, to pull their heads out of the oil-sands and try to cope or even to begin an attempt to change the future we're on the brink of?
In Mark Hertsgaard's Hot: Living Through The Next Fifty Years On Earth, he uses an image that I find strikingly vivid and apt. He asks readers to imagine themselves on a train headed downhill; ahead looms a large fog bank. When the engineer sees that fog, he hits the brakes. The laws of physics and inertia take hold; although he's trying to stop, he hasn't enough time. He's going to go some unknown distance into that fog. We're into that fog bank now, into that unknown. The things that'll keep us from going way far in are recognition of the fog's existence, and the foot on the brakes. And we're deep into denial that the fog bank is there, and we haven't even started stopping yet. ...And the band played on....
Yes, I'm mad as hell. Peter Finch's character in Network made that phrase and feeling work to public advantage: people threw open their windows and yelled it out into the night and began to change their behaviors. But that was a work of fiction. In this mess we call real life, not so much. I'm mad that the right-wing talking assholes (that's where their heads are) obfuscate, mislead, outright lie about the straits we're in, all the while consolidating their power and fattening their bank accounts while the so-called Left (there is no actual Left anymore: Nixon would be too liberal to be elected today. Think about that....) hems and haws and stammers weakly and ineffectually and wets its finger to see which way the wind is blowing--it can't even consider what's actually in that wind--and pontificates accordingly. It is said that a people get the government they deserve; I think the same can be said of a future.
My country--hell, my planet (well, it's not actually my planet, but you get what I mean) has been hijacked by sick, twisted, delusional, selfish ideologues who care only about the next news cycle, never mind the next election, and their bank accounts' bottom lines, never mind their kids' and grandkids' futures. Win the debate at the expense of truth. It feels totally like the toddler response to Hide and Seek: "If I have my eyes closed, you can't see me." "If I deny this stuff viciously and vociferously enough, and amass enough gold, I'll be immune." And while there's a soupcon of truth there, since it's the poor who'll get it first and worst (as it always is) it's gonna get us all, no matter who, what, or where, no matter believer or denier. As Greg Brown said, "Life's not what you think it is, it's just what it is."
So what to make of this, radiologically? Should I play songs of doom and gloom, apocalypse and cynicism? Nah, I've done all of that stuff. On the Titanic, the band kept on a-playin', and if it worked for them--what's that? Oh, it, it didn't, really? Oh, well, that may change...Nope-- What the hell-- the ship sank, this train ain't stopping, so: "Let's Dance." And maybe, if we wait long enough and clap really hard, the Real Grownups will show up and save the day....
Hope to see you Tuesday, noon till two Eastern on 100.1 FM, or wool.fm.
"Dance me to the end of love."
Hey Mark - I missed the beginning of your show and hadn't read your blog post yet, so when I tuned into "Dance, Dance, Dance" it didn't take long to figure out the basic theme, but it gave me pause. "Has Mark taken up dancing?" I wondered, "First fasting, now dancing - what would be next?"
ReplyDeleteThen I read the blog post and all was revealed, although at first I thought perhaps your show was a response to the "dance" of politics, politicians always dancing out of the way of "Inconvenient Truths."
I ask the same daily question as you, "Where are the Grown-Ups?" As in a more distopian version of the "Emperor's New Clothes" those in power seem to be closing their eyes to the bleakness of our current situation. But then, so are most people! I am reading a book about our "foggy" situation, called, "The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis will bring on an end to shopping and the birth of a new world." In it, Paul Gilding discusses why it is so hard to accept where we are at ("Good lord, I'd rather watch reality tv than think about Peak Oil!") He talks about different ways to think about it and has a surprisingly optimistic viewpoint for someone who has devoted his life to this topic of climate change, peak oil and the future of the planet.
Anyway, I can't sleep at night for thinking about this issue. People in NY seem so happy to see the lovely spring weather, but I am totally spooked by it. What is going to happen to all the animals and insects who will arrive in a month expecting blooming flowers... and on and on.
I don't know where I'm going with this, I feel like I'm on a train in a fog. So what the heck, I think I'll just go out dancing.
Thanks for offering lots of food for thought, of course, the good music!
Fran
Nobody likes the voice of doom or even consciousness; I'm familiar with being the one in that role (the latter, not so much the former), while you (Mark) do a mixture of both. But we need you. Or at least I do. And we need the soundtrack, which you so enthusiastically provide as well. Thanks.
ReplyDelete